Teachers say that the new deal with the province could reduce their workload.
Alberta Teacher’s Association president, Carol Henderson, said there were two issues they were holding out for, which included concerns about workloads and changes to their employment legislation.
“The legislation that we have for employments will not change,” she explained, adding the new deal would also give teachers an upper hand when being assigned extra tasks.
“This isn’t a year they have been talking a lot about salary. What they are talking about are the class size issues and the tasks that they are required to do that have been piling on.”
Henderson said that most teachers work an average of 56 hours each week. That number includes instruction time and lesson preparation but also extra activities and duties.
“You are expected to participate and help out somehow in the school on some sort of committee,” Teacher Sherri McEwen explained.
“Using this framework, if we agree to it, we can put restrictions on that amount of time that I am spending on that extra stuff which would free me up to focus more on my students.”
Teachers are expected to vote on the contract by May 13.
ZERO SUM GAME
Henderson also said she was concerned about the provincial budget. She said she believes current programs are unsustainable with the current forecast.
“The zeros are going to cause huge problems for boards because they will not be able to maintain the programs that they’ve had in place up until now.”
She said the ATA would be vocal and was surprised that the boards were not protesting the budget.
“We will be advocating for more money for education because we don’t think it can be sustained with the flat budget numbers.”
With files from Amanda Anderson
